


Blank Canvas

by OreoPromises



Series: Picture Prompts [8]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Detective Changkyun, Detective Kihyun, Detective Minhyuk, Forensics, Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 06:29:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13358472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OreoPromises/pseuds/OreoPromises
Summary: I use Lee Hoseok in this because it's his real name but in the tags it's still Shin Hoseok that's the one recognised in the character tags. For some reason it didn't let me attach the right images this time, so if you want to know the images i got for this one (there were three this time) they're up on my Instagram (@these_are_my_designs_)





	Blank Canvas

**Author's Note:**

> I use Lee Hoseok in this because it's his real name but in the tags it's still Shin Hoseok that's the one recognised in the character tags. For some reason it didn't let me attach the right images this time, so if you want to know the images i got for this one (there were three this time) they're up on my Instagram (@these_are_my_designs_)

“What are you doing?” Kihyun’s voice is too loud in the darkness and he cringes at the sound, certain the noise will bring heavy footsteps in their direction. But there is no such sound.  
Instead, the curious noise he had been asking about fills the dimness again, a crunching, almost wet sound that has the hairs on his arms standing to attention. Somehow he already knows there’s something odd about it, something not fitting in their current situation.  
“...eating.” And strangely enough Changkyun’s voice, when it mumbles towards him, sounds muffled.  
Kihyun sighs, the small relief it brings momentarily suspending any of his worries. Changkyun was always so exasperatingly confusing.  
“We’re being held hostage and you decide to raid the kitchen?” His voice is dry, and Changkyun’s stifled giggles make him roll his eyes. They’re partners, always will be, but several times a day he acts in ways that have Kihyun questioning why he is so fond of the younger detective.  
“They didn’t say the cupboards were off limits.” Changkyun replies, and his deep voice lilts with sarcasm, humour. “Besides” he adds “we’re not being taken hostage in the traditional sense.”  
“I’d prefer it.” Kihyun says before he can stop himself, and there’s a silence after his words that make him sure Changkyun is agreeing.  
Kihyun can’t help the guilt that stabs at him because of this. If only they’d been more careful.

……………………..

It was a generic crime scene.  
Changkyun had immediately disappeared somewhere, no doubt seeking out that forensics expert. Minhyuk. Kihyun thinks he remembers his name, but he isn’t one to socialise, and his work as a detective has lead him to become even more of a recluse than he was before.  
He’s young for his position, almost exceptionally so, a detective inspector by 21, but the lowest DI in his area, not quite well respected yet. Changkyun was really the only other colleague he spoke with outside of work, and their teamwork had displayed itself in their earlier cases enough for them to have been placed into a partnership. It wasn’t official, but Kihyun always found Changkyun assigned to the same cases as he was. It made things easier.

Without Changkyun around, Kihyun is left alone when he arrives at the yellow crime scene tapes. They’re wrapped around two pillars, the framework of a doorway to the train station he now finds himself in.  
An underground stop, white tiled walls yellowing with age, marked with swirling black graffiti- that’s new, so in contrast with the dismal state of the station itself that it catches Kihyun’s eye instantly. He can’t make out what it means though, as if someone had crossed through their original lettering with swirls of the same black, obscuring the words just enough for the lines to bleed together.

“Male, 24 years of age and was last seen yesterday morning heading to work in the city.”  
Changkyun’s at his side again, fiddling with the wrists of his gloves, and Kihyun finally looks down at the body below him.

The only thing he can see is the white sheet over it, the cuff of a work shirt peeking out from one side, a too-pale hand still clutching at earphones.  
“No sign of a struggle.”  
Changkyun looks at him with a puzzled expression. “Did you lift up the cloth already?”  
“No” Kihyun says. He doesn’t mention that he’d been waiting for his partner’s return, that he needs someone else there so he can tear his eyes away from the victim, something to act as a distraction. “But the victim is still clutching onto earphones- if the victim had been attacked in some way before their death it would only be reasonable to drop them.”

“Unless the suspect placed them back in their hand after their death.”

Kihyun shakes his head but can’t look away from the white sheet. It hadn’t been placed by them, that wasn’t the procedure, especially considering the body had only been found an hour ago, and the station immediately closed off. Despite the opacity of the fabric, he can already tell what they will find under it.

“No, there’s no message to be sent by placing earphones in the hand of his victim, the death must have been instantaneous, the body seizes up, grabbing the earphones tight enough so that when the body falls they don’t slip from the victim’s hand. A headshot.” As he comes to his conclusion Kihyun is already peeling back the sheet to reveal the gunshot wound, almost directly between the boy’s eyes. His stomach twists at the normality of the young eyes staring back at his, not blown wide with shock or fear, completely unknowing.  
“It was planned. I think.”  
He’s forgotten to replace the sheet when he stands, legs feeling too weak to crouch as he was, and turns to face Changkyun so the body isn’t in his peripheral. He can see the younger officer’s eyes pointing directly at the body behind him.  
“His.”  
The word’s quiet, so much so that it takes Kihyun a second of heavy silence to realise he must have missed something his partner said.  
“What?”  
“His, you said his.”  
In the hand of his victim.

“Oh...I suppose I did.” But there is no known suspect yet, and Kihyun doesn’t feel ready to look at the victim again just yet to figure out his reasoning, so he shrugs. “Statistic probability? It is generally more likely for it to have been a man.”  
Changkyun doesn’t believe him, it’s obvious in the way his eyes narrow just slightly, his lips pressed into an unhappy line as he hears the lie. But he doesn’t dispute it.

“The victim worked as a bank manager in the city. His wallet wasn’t taken” Changkyun muses “so I think we should rule out financial gain as a motive.”  
“Completely?”  
Changkyun knows what Kihyun means without further explanation. “He was too young to have thought about writing a will at his age, and he was single- as far as his family told us.”  
Kihyun nods and closes his eyes, fending back the headache that threatens as he turns towards the body again.  
“So no financial gain.” When he opens his eyes Changkyun is removing the sheet entirely, a crisp but inexpensive suit revealed as it is placed to the side of the body.  
“Who covered him?” Kihyun raises his scarf over his nose as he crouches by the body again, blocking out the smell. But it’s mainly to hide his face, to hide away as if under a blanket.  
“They haven’t been able to find prints yet. Could have been the killer.”  
“And the shot happened when the station was empty?”  
“Yes- the only ‘witnesses’, including the man that called it in, arrived at 5:15 am and the body has been dated as having been killed at least an hour before.”  
“No one found the body for an entire hour…” Kihyun’s words are sighed and Changkyun’s voice is tired when he replies.  
“Unless they did, and just didn’t call it in.” Both of them know how unlikely it is, but something is missing, the time frame snagging in Kihyun’s thoughts.  
“The killer may have then used the cloth to conceal the body in the hopes that if anyone entered the station at that time they wouldn't pay it enough attention to make out the body beneath it, using the early hour of the morning to assume there would be no one in the station for long enough for hi- them to get away from the station before police arrived.” 

Changkyun doesn’t mention the slip up, and it’s a while before he speaks, lost in thought as Kihyun checks the victim’s clothes, hands, face for anything that could be useful.  
“Quite the risk.” Kihyun sees the reluctance in the statement and knows Changkyun believes the theory just as much as he does.  
“I know. There must have been some other reason to cover the body.”  
Finding nothing else to comment on Kihyun stands, walking slowly so Changkyun has time to follow, working at his temples with shaking fingers as his headache crashes down on him.  
“I think we should speak to the witnesses now.”

 

Kihyun hadn’t been expecting someone so upset. Changkyun had told him there were two, a woman and a man that had no connection to each other but the same train time, and Kihyun’s certain Changkyun said there is no relation with the first man on the scene and the dead boy. But strangers or even acquaintances don’t look upset normally, not so soon afterwards- shocked, horrified, numb. Shaking and wrapped in shock blankets and white, but stunned tearless.

The first man on the scene is standing just apart from a group of police at the edge of the crime scene, not shaking or wrapped in a shock blanket or abnormally pale. He’s handsome too, shocking in the grisly setting, silver hair tipped with blue shining coldly in the morning light, fair face drawn into an unhappy smile that sets Kihyun’s mind into confused stumbles.  
“You’re sure he had no connection to the victim?” He asks Changkyun quietly as they approach, and as if hearing the closest thing they have to a witness looks up towards them, dark eyes curious, but rimmed a little with red. “He apparently told others that it was the first time he’d ever saw the boy.”  
Then why does it look like he’s grieving?

Kihyun feels himself standing straighter as he finally reaches him, Changkyun veering off to the other witness, suddenly conscious of his bad posture. The silver haired man isn’t overly tall, only slightly taller than Kihyun, but he’s wide, muscles built up so it seems like he towers over Kihyun. He has a casual leather jacket over his dark jumper, a strange silver-blue that matches his hair.  
“Hello” Kihyun says, and the stranger offers a small smile. “I’m detective inspector Yoo Kihyun, I’d like to ask you some questions about the body you found this morning.”  
“I’m Lee Hoseok.” The other says, nodding.  
Kihyun always hates this part, how casual introductions follow the image of death so awkwardly. He hears the click of a recorder behind him, and Changkyun’s soothing voice.  
“Can you tell me how you found the body?”

Hoseok sighs and Kihyun notices how tired he looks for the first time. Maybe he doesn’t know the victim after all, just hasn’t fully recovered from the experience of finding a body under a sheet like a shroud.  
“I was on my way into the city to meet with a friend. I must have arrived at the station at quarter past 5? And when I noticed the sheet I called the police immediately- I could see the hand peek out from under it. There wasn’t any blood, that I could see but...I just had a bad feeling.”  
“And you didn’t know the man before you found his body?”  
“No, sir.” Kihyun feels slightly ridiculous at the term, especially since he knows he’s the younger of the two of them, but it sounds colloquial on Hoseok’s lips, so he ignores the feeling.  
“And you have no connection to the other witness?”  
“She arrived at the station less than a minute after me, but we don’t know each other, no.”  
“Thank you for your time, then, Hoseok.”

Changkyun clearly notices something is wrong, as he follows Kihyun back to his car with hurried footsteps. They’d sent the witnesses away, playing the tapes they’d taken to each other, but they hadn’t discussed the statements yet.  
“Kihyun?”  
Kihyun runs his hands through his hair instead of answering, breathing in the cold air as he stands by the car. Something isn’t right.  
Changkyun must have picked up on it too, though, because he goes on.  
“He wouldn’t be able to tell whether he knew the boy or not if the sheet was covering him. Not with absolute certainty, at least.”  
Kihyun looks up at his partner, humming in agreement. He must look awful, because his headache is coming back and he hadn’t slept last night and Changkyun looks at him with veiled pity.  
“If there was even a slither of doubt most people would check if it was someone they knew, wouldn’t they?”  
Kihyun only nods though, and Changkyun unlocks his car as he realises the conversation is over for now.

 

“So” Kihyun starts, and he sees Changkyun snap to attention at the sound of his voice. They’re in Kihyun’s office, Changkyun pouring over a file as Kihyun notes down everything he knows about the case so far in neat shorthand. After his third coffee his headache had numbed considerably, and he feels awake enough to think, now.  
“Assuming Lee Hoseok was telling the truth about the sheet being over the body when he discovered it, the killer must have been the one that placed it there.”  
Changkyun shoves the file away from him and closes his eyes, leaning back in his chair. “Unless there was a witness that saw the body before him and didn’t call it in.”  
Kihyun waves a dismissive hand through the air, even though Changkyun can’t see him do it.  
“That’s incredibly unlikely- phoning in a body doesn’t automatically make you a suspect to murder, and there would be no other reason for a reasonable person to walk past a body.”  
“The sheet was hiding it from view?”  
“Hoseok saw it” Kihyun points out, and Changkyun tips his head in acknowledgement. “And even with the sheet the killer leaves the body in the middle of a train station- they assumed people wouldn’t show up until they were safely removed from the crime scene because of the early hour so they knew they would have time to hide or move the body if they wanted to. But still they left it exactly where it fell, no blood from the back of the head being found on other parts of the ground.”  
“So the sheet wasn’t being used to hide the body.” 

As Changkyun pours more coffee Kihyun thinks back to the sheet’s appearance. White but unclean, not new, eroded in places and splashed with stains of dirty water after rainfall. It would be difficult to trace where it had been previously and even then Kihyun was sure it wouldn’t be anywhere of use to them.  
CCTV had shown it to be lying on the train tracks years ago, before the cameras had been blacked out with graffiti and left that way.  
Anger surges through Kihyun. If only someone had taken the time to fix the cameras, the killer might have been caught already.  
“Maybe it was out of guilt? The killer couldn’t bare to look at the body, so they dragged the cloth over them and ran.”  
“If so this is likely their first criminal offence, meaning they won’t be on the database. Possibly a relative of the victim, or a friend.” Kihyun accepts the tea Changkyun places in front of him with a smirk. No more coffee for him.  
“A crime of passion?”  
Kihyun feels the truth slipping away from them and knows one of their jumps of logic is leading them down the wrong path.  
“Something doesn’t feel right, though. A single shot through the back of the head in an area with no CCTV in the early hours of the morning when no one else is around to hear the shot. It’s about as far from a crime of passion as we could get. And not a first crime, either, this is too well planned. He- they must have...” Kihyun breaks off with a sigh, already disheveled hair ruffled under his fingertips in frustration, and Changkyun looks at him carefully.  
“Kihyun.” His voice is cautious but firm “maybe we should trust your instincts here- they’ve been right before.” When Kihyun looks up at him, it’s to find a steady, open look.  
“There’s no evidence to suggest it was a man, Kyun.”  
“And yet your subconscious seems pretty certain it was. You should learn to trust yourself more, Kihyun.” Rustling from outside the office makes both of them look to the clock, startled at how late it was getting, and Kihyun is glad for the change in conversation it brings.  
“It’s already 7, huh? It must just be us two left in the building.” Kihyun collects the abandoned styrofoam cups on his desk, but Changkyun doesn’t move. He’s still staring at the folder he’d had earlier when Kihyun grabs his jacket.  
“Changkyun, come on. I have a feeling this one can wait until tomorrow.”  
The other boy nods but stays planted in his seat, so Kihyun throws his jacket on quickly and sighs, swiping the folder off the desk and taking off at a run, a yelp from the younger boy making him laugh.  
“Kihyun!” 

 

When they get back to the case the next morning, it’s Minhyuk that rushes through the doors to Kihyun’s office- fast becoming the only place they can get any work done, because Changkyun’s desk is too loud and too small and they work so much better talking things through.  
“Results came this morning” Minhyuk says as he enters, and the others jump, having been lost in thought. “We were looking for skin below the nails, or anything else to suggest a struggle, but we found traces of something else there instead, cocaine, powder. It was in the victim’s system too- not much of it, but enough for him to have been feeling the effects when the murder occured.”  
“Cocaine?” Changkyun’s voice is surprised, his expression blank with surprise as he looks for Kihyun’s reaction, but Kihyun is just as confused.  
“Thank you, Minhyuk” he says, and the man thankfully sees it for the dismissal it is and leaves as quickly as he entered.

Kihyun closes his eyes and hears the thud of Changkyun’s head landing on a desk.  
“This case just got a lot more complicated, didn’t it?”  
Involvement with drugs was never a good sign in cases like these, where there seemed to be premeditation, a motive that usually involved a group of people rather than an individual, all equally unwilling to work with police because of the illegal substances they had connections with. Kihyun just hoped this wasn’t a gang case.  
“So the victim had taken cocaine prior to his death.” Kihyun states.  
“Would there usually be residue under his nails?”  
Changkyun had worked less cases than Kihyun- sometimes it was easy to forget that. “Most likely- it gets everywhere. The forensics should find traces of it on his notes, if they examine his wallet- it’s usually taken that way in a hurry, and the victim had a train to catch, hence the traces of it under his nails.”  
Changkyun nods as he scribbles this down. “Could this give us a motive?”  
“Any number of them.” Kihyun admits. “It hasn’t been established whether he was involved in the dealing process, whether he was addicted to the substance, who provided it…” he trails of as he notices Changkyun frowning deeply.  
“Hoseok said he was going into the city” he says suddenly.  
Kihyun recalls the interview he had with the witness the day before. “Yes, to meet a friend.”  
“And the victim was travelling into the city on business.”  
Kihyun thinks the link a feeble one, but it’s all they have to go on. “You think Hoseok knew the victim and was meeting him at the train station?”  
Changkyun nods, voice racing through his thoughts as the idea grows on him. “He seemed very shaken, at the scene, and not checking under the sheet... Hoseok was there at a very early hour to take a train to meet a friend, wasn’t he? It could have been that he knew the victim would be travelling into the city at such a time and they decided - or Hoseok decided- to meet before the victim’s working hours.”  
“And you’re certain the other witness had no connection to either Hoseok or the victim?”  
Changkyun waves the idea away. “She arrived seconds after Hoseok to see him already by the body calling the police and was very convincing when stating she hadn’t seen either man before. She takes the train every morning to work, but not as far as the victim.”  
Something in Changkyun’s conviction rings true in Kihyun’s mind.  
“So is Hoseok the distributer or the buyer?” He asks, but it’s more of a test to keep Changkyun alert than a serious question.  
“Nothing was found on Hoseok when he was searched and the victim had already taken cocaine prior to his arrival at the train station- if they were meeting for work it wasn’t as simple as a distribution.”  
An even rhythm strikes in time with the clock as Kihyun taps his fingers on his desk.  
“These speculations still have no evidence” he warns, and Changkyun’s reply is firm.  
“We’ll find some.”  
But the hours tick by with no new discoveries.

 

“Sir.”  
The title itself is enough to make Kihyun understand what was happening before he turned to Changkyun. He’d hated the term, and banned Changkyun from using it when they’d gotten closer, but Changkyun still blurted it out if something surprised him. Now, Kihyun finds the source to be the silhouette of someone walking across the street ahead of them, turning so his profile could be seen. Blue hair, solid build. Kihyun recognises him instantly, annoyance bitter in his mouth at the thought of never being able to escape the cases he’s working on.  
“Lee Hoseok. What’s he doing here?”  
“Maybe he felt too shocked to take his train?” Changkyun volunteers, but as they watch they see where he’s heading, a nightclub at the end of the street pouring out heavy-bass music and light, passing by the crowd of people waiting at the door to step by the bodyguard.  
“Clubbing would hardly suggest how shaken up he’s become.”  
Changkyun nods, and then grins sheepishly, and Kihyun can’t help but scoff at his expression.  
“What?” Changkyun yells, laughing. “It would be research into our connection to the case!”  
Kihyun just rolls his eyes. “Whatever. I could do with a drink anyway.”

When they finally get inside- the queue decreasing a little quicker than Kihyun had expected, but still huge- Changkyun laughs in disbelief, Kihyun letting out an appreciative whistle as they look around. They’de stepped into a high-ceilinged, two floor nightclub, swarming with people dancing and drinking and yelling. The walls were a deep midnight blue, with rows of thin neon lights around them, and there were glints of dark silver metal around them, from the tables and the bar and dance floor, but Kihyun was surprised to find carpet under his feet. It was just on the ground floor, from what he could see, with the dance floor taking up the entire balcony of the second floor above him, but still it made it clear that whoever owned this place was definitely not low on cash.

 

Being pulled towards a table by Changkyun’s hand on his sleeve puts an end to Kihyun’s thoughts. It was hard to switch off, sometimes, the analytical thinking he employed on cases. Maybe a drink would help.  
“What can I get you, Kihyun?” Changkyun’s yelling at him over the music, and Kihyun just shrugs and leaves it up to him- they’d been out together enough for Kihyun to trust Changkyun with his drink. The younger boy comes back with two beakers of whiskey and a huge grin splitting from ear to ear.  
“What’s wrong with you?” Kihyun asks him as he takes a sip of one of the drinks. The burn at the back of his throat feels good, but it’s smoother than he expected.  
“Someone” Changkyun says, hopping onto the seat opposite Kihyun at their little table “already payed for our drinks.”  
Kihyun frowns, not looking forward to meeting up with new people. “Who?”  
But Changkyun just smiles, and nods his head to somewhere behind Kihyun.  
Turning around in his seat in the direction of the nod, Kihyun catches sight of Hoseok on the second floor, leaning over the silver railing of the balcony with his own glass, and an uneasy feeling runs through him.  
Hoseok spots him, and grins, holding his glass up to them.  
“Why would he pay for our drinks, Changkyun?” Kihyun says, turning around and putting his glass down as if it had burned him. He has a bad feeling, and he needs his thoughts sober.  
“He saw me at the bar, said he wanted to thank us for being so nice when we questioned him” Changkyun shrugs, but there’s an edge to his smile, and he’s noticed the look in Kihyun’s eyes. He puts his own glass down as he tips his head.  
“Kihyun?”  
Kihyun tries to keep his voice calms as he replies.“We weren't that nice. And now he could guess that we followed him here- if he’s our guy he knows we’re suspicious of him.”  
“Are we suspicious of him?”  
Kihyun doesn’t know what to say to that, but he doesn’t have time to respond anyway, because two men approach their table.  
The first is young, younger even than Changkyun, and clearly drunk, stumbling close enough to their table to knock it. As Changkyun steadies him, he pulls a bag out of his pocket and opens his mouth, but just as he starts making sound the second man appears.  
Hoseok, looking nothing like he did this morning.  
He’s dressed finely, with a blazer that’s fitted so well it must be custom made, dark against the metallic silver of the dress shirt below it. There’s a thin choker around his throat and his silver hair has been styled up from his face, wearing a tight smile as he puts a hand against the boy’s chest and pushes him gently away from their table. It all happens so quickly Kihyun barely manages to make out the thin powder in the bag, but he’s quick to school his expression into one of innocent surprise, as if he hadn’t saw it at all.  
“I think you have the wrong table, Taejoon” Hoseok is saying, with the same tight smile on his face, and the boy takes one look at him before nodding quickly and stumbling away.  
Hoseok adjusts his jacket and smiles at Changkyun, then Kihyun.  
“I’m sorry about that” he says, and Kihyun raises an eyebrow, surprised.  
“Why would you be sorry, do you work here?”  
Hoseok laughs. “Actually, I own this place.” Changkyun whistles appreciatively, but Kihyun can see the same suspicion in his eyes as he’s feeling. The bad feeling in his gut just grows.  
“I’m really very sorry” Hoseok continues, features dipping down into a frown, and he really does look apologetic, but there’s a charm to his smile that wasn’t there this morning. “I’ll get someone to show you around, should I? Introduce you to the place” Hoseok’s grin is full watt now, and Changkyun’s eyes flit to Kihyun’s for a moment, uncertain, as Hoseok signals a boy stood against one of the walls. He’s quick to obey Hoseok’s orders, and soon they’re being ushered out their seats and show to the V.I.P section.  
“I’m Hyungwon, by the way” the tall boy says, and Changkyun greets him but doesn’t give their names.

Hyungwon leads them through the tables to a corridor behind the bar, opening a side door. “If you would be so kind” He lilts, signalling for them to go ahead of him, and Kihyun nudges Changkyun on with a hand on his back when the boy’s steps falter. If they were looking suspicious, it would only make things worse.  
But what they were told was a staircase leading up the the second floor leads up to a single door, quiet where the music should have been flowing from under it, and just as they step into the dimly lit room Hyungwon closes the door swiftly behind them.  
“Shit.”

Changkyun walks towards the door as Kihyun moves away from it, turning the knob even though they both heard Hyungwon locking it behind him.  
“That was fast” Kihyun says nonchalantly, and Changkyun swears softly again as he gives up on the door.  
“Do you think Taejoon was an employee?” He asks, surprising Kihyun with how calm he’s being when the older boy knows he’s claustrophobic. Kihyun realises this as a signal for him to keep talking and try and distract him from the panic he must be feeling.  
“It doesn’t really matter. Whether he was an employee or not, it was clear Hoseok knew he was trading drugs in his club, so I’d guess that this thing happens a lot.”  
“If he uses his club to deal then Hoseok could have been behind the shooting.”  
Kihyun nods as he paces the small room. It’s a strange place to be held hostage, with a kitchenette against one wall with a fridge and countertops, a dining table with four chairs in the centre of shining floorboards.  
“The victim could have known about the drug business and hinted that he was going to tell the police, bribed them in some way” Changkyun suggests, but something about that doesn’t sound right to Kihyun.  
“Maybe…” A sudden idea comes to him. “Or he could be one of Hoseok’s own employees.”  
There’s a small shuffling sound behind him as Changkyun settles down beside the door.  
“So the shooter was someone in another drug circle competing with Hoseok’s club?”  
Kihyun nods, even though he’s far enough away from Changkyun that the other boy won’t be able to see it.

………………………

“Why are we even being kept here?” Changkyun asks, and Kihyun focuses his eyes hard enough to make out his slumped figure against a wall, the food in his hands, the slightly quicker than normal rise and fall of his chest.  
“Well, it’s clearly on Hoseok’s orders. He must know we think he’s involved with the victim in some way, so I assume he’s going to show up and offer us some kind of deal for our silence.” Kihyun tries not to let the idea plant itself too firmly in his head- at least one of them needs to stay calm here.  
“What kind of-” There’s a loud clang as the door is rattled, and Kihyun yelps in surprise when Changkyun collides with him suddenly, having leapt away from the noise. But the boy’s closeness is welcomed, and Kihyun finds himself gripping the other’s arm as two figures step through the door and quickly shut it behind them. Both are familiar.  
Someone outside hits the lights and they squint, the harsh glare stinging their dark-adjusted eyes. 

“Minhyuk?”  
Instead of answering Minhyuk turns and locks the door behind them again, just as Hoseok makes his way farther into the room. Now they’re alone with him, Kihyun’s hit by his cologne, a warm musky scent that reminds him of fire.  
“I’m sorry gentlemen” Hoseok says, and Kihyun feels ridiculous again “but I think you already know why you’re here?”  
Changkyun answer, glaring at Hoseok, defiant. “You killed the man in the alley.”  
But even as Kihyun goes to shake his head Hoseok frowns, confused.  
“Killed him? No, he was a friend.” Minhyuk looks at them now, levelly, and Kihyun knows he’s trying to tell them it’s the truth, even now when he isn’t sure whether to trust him.  
“That’s why you seemed so shaken up at the scene, then” Kihyun sighs. “But you told us you didn’t know him, Hoseok.”  
Hoseok nods a little sadly and looks at the worn floorboards beneath him. “I know.” He looks up quickly, willing them to understand. “But that was so the man that killed him thought it didn’t affect me.”  
“Man?” Kihyun had been right, then.  
“I don’t know who did it, if that’s what you’re asking.” The prospect seems to anger and sadden Hoseok in equal measures. “But I’d assume it was just a hired gun.”  
“And do you have any idea who would hire someone to shoot your friend?”  
Hoseok and Minhyuk spare a glance. It looks like they’ve known each other all their lives. Kihyun imagines this must sting, to Changkyun.  
“He was involved in a drug circle.”  
Kihyun wants to laugh, but somehow manages to maintain composure.  
“Yours?”  
Hoseok looks at him for a little too long before answering, a disconcerting edge to his gaze, the slight smirk he wears. “I simply own the club, I have no part in any drug circle.” He spreads his arms wide, as if showcasing his innocence.  
“So the forensic detective behind you” Changkyun says, and Minhyuk looks hurt by the formality, how Changkyun distances them both “he’s just a friend too?” His voice is dry, and Kihyun feels himself stand up straighter when Hoseok eyes him, feeling protective.  
“Minhyuk came to warn me that my prints had been found on the sheet covering the body.”  
He makes his way to the table, drawing the seat at its head out and sitting, raising an eyebrow at the half eaten bag of chips Changkyun had used to block out his anxiety.  
“So it was you that covered the body.”  
“No.”  
Minhyuk leans against the wall behind Hoseok’s chair. “The body had been covered by the killer- a neutral professional, most likely-”  
“Why?” Changkyun interrupts.  
Hoseok steeples his fingers on the tabletop as he answers. “Because I was close with the victim and it was more traumatic to cover the body so I would reveal it myself. They may have also assumed- correctly- that I would have moved the sheet and left my fingerprints.”  
Kihyun considers this. A hired killer would explain the nature of the crime, how unexpecting the victim was and how well planned out the act itself had been. But he can see it in Hoseok’s face that he knows they will see through some parts of his story- considering the casual manner he’s discussing this with them, this is worrying. The unsolved parts of Hoseok’s account, it must seem, are not enough for any type of conviction.  
“You said you had no part in the drug business at your club, so why would one of the dealers be killed because of his connection to you?”  
Hoseok’s only answer is a smile and a shrug.  
“And you told us you had no connection to the victim.” Changkyun adds, and Kihyun knows already how Hoseok will respond, and he hates the response all the more because he knows it is true.  
“I did” Hoseok nods. “And you won't find one.” He looks behind him to Minhyuk, who meets the look and kicks himself off the wall towards the door.  
“And now that we have been able to talk over this civilly, without a warrant, I will be looking forward to meeting with you tomorrow, for questioning.” Hoseok’s smile is charming as the door is unlocked with a loud click, and Changkyun follows Kihyun from the room, both knowing they will never see the end of this.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work in progress, but because I'm working on another series at the minute as well as writing other prompts, it might not be updated as quickly as I would like. At the minute it seems like it's going to be quite short anyway because of the chapter length, probably a two chapter work.  
> -E


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